Substrate and method for fabricating the same

ABSTRACT

A single crystal of zinc oxide which is c-axis oriented with use of electrolytic deposition method is formed on an amorphous carbon layer, after the amorphous carbon layer is provided on an inexpensive graphite substrate. The amorphous carbon layer is provided by oxidizing the surface of the graphite substrate.

This is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/077,382, filed onMar. 31, 2011, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,268,153, which is a continuation ofInternational Application No. PCT/JP2010/006537, with an internationalfiling date of Nov. 8, 2010, which claims priority of Japanese PatentApplication No. 2009-276281, filed on Dec. 4, 2009, the contents ofwhich are hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present disclosure relates to a substrate on which a monocrystallineZnO is formed. The substrate can be used for fabricating alight-emitting diode element, a solar cell, and an electric device usingsemiconductor such as gallium nitride (GaN) or zinc oxide (ZnO).

2. Description of the Related Art

Recently, a semiconductor element composed of a nitride semiconductorsuch as gallium nitride (GaN) has been researched and developedactively. A semiconductor light-emitting element composed of the nitridesemiconductor comprising aluminum nitride (AlN), gallium nitride (GaN)or indium nitride (InN), or mixed crystal thereof emits light in a widewavelength region from ultraviolet or blue to infrared by varying itsfilm composition. A visible-range light-emitting diode using the nitridesemiconductor has already been commercially-available. In order tosuppress the carrier recombination due to non-luminescence transitionderived from lattice defects or penetrating cracks, a nitridesemiconductor film having significantly low defects in the crystal hasto be prepared. This requires a monocrystalline substrate such as asapphire substrate, but such a monocrystalline substrate is veryexpensive.

Japanese Laid-open patent publication No. 2009-200207 (Hereinafter,Patent Document 1) attempting to solve the above-mentioned problemdiscloses a method for preparing a polycrystalline nitride semiconductorfilm on a graphite substrate by a pulse sputtering method. However,since the GaN film obtained in accordance with Patent Document 1 ispolycrystalline having many grain boundaries in the crystal, it is notsuitable for preparing a light-emitting diode with high performance.

Both of GaN and ZnO have a wurtzite-type crystal structure. The a-axismismatch factor between GaN and ZnO is 1.8%. The c-axis mismatch factortherebetween is 0.4%. Both of these values are very small.

Accordingly, a ZnO monocrystalline substrate is useful not only as asubstrate for homoepitaxial growth to form a ZnO semiconductor layer butalso as a substrate for heteroepitaxial growth to form a GaNsemiconductor layer. Thus, the light-emitting diode element having theZnO semiconductor layer or the GaN semiconductor layer formed on the ZnOmonocrystalline substrate has been proposed.

The ZnO monocrystalline substrate necessary to form a high qualitysemiconductor such as GaN or ZnO is, however, very expensive.Furthermore, it is difficult to fabricate a ZnO monocrystallinesubstrate with large area.

As method for forming a ZnO substrate, a vacuum film-forming method suchas a sputtering method, a reactive plasma deposition method, a metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) method, a pulse laserdeposition method, or a molecular beam epitaxy method has been utilized.In order to form a monocrystalline ZnO with a small amount of defects bythe vacuum film-forming method, it is necessary to introduce oxygen andto heat a substrate to approximately 500 to 800 degrees Celsius. In sucha high temperature oxidation atmosphere, when a graphite substrate isutilized, the graphite substrate is easy to be deteriorated.Accordingly, it is difficult to prepare the monocrystalline ZnO on thegraphite substrate.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

As one of the objectives to solve the aforementioned problem, thepresent disclosure provides a substrate having the monocrystalline ZnOwith the use of a graphite substrate, which is a non-monocrystallinesubstrate, by electrolytic deposition method in an aqueous solutioncontaining zinc ion.

The method of the present disclosure is a method for fabricating asubstrate, comprising the following steps (a) and (b) in this order:

a step (a) of treating a surface of a graphite substrate withoxygen-asking and forming an amorphous carbon layer on the surface ofthe graphite substrate, and

a step (b) of forming a monocrystalline ZnO layer on the formedamorphous carbon layer by an electrolytic deposition method, wherein

the amorphous carbon layer has a thickness of not less than 3 nm and notmore than 50 nm.

The substrate of the present disclosure comprises a graphite substrate,an amorphous carbon layer formed on the graphite substrate, and amonocrystalline ZnO layer formed on the amorphous carbon layer, whereinthe amorphous carbon layer has a thickness of not less than 3 nm and notmore than 50 nm.

The substrate of the present disclosure enables the fabrication of ahigh performance semiconductor layer such as GaN or ZnO. Accordingly, alight-emitting diode element, a solar cell, and an electric device withan excellent property which utilize the semiconductor such as GaN or ZnOare achieved.

In the following brief description of drawings, the term “photograph”means “an image”.

Other features, elements, processes, steps, characteristics andadvantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent from thefollowing detailed description of preferred embodiments of the presentdisclosure with reference to the attached drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a cross-sectional view of the substrate according toembodiment 1 of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 2( a) and 2(b) show cross-sectional views of the process sequenceof the fabrication method of the substrate according to the embodiment 1of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3( a) shows a surface SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope)observation photograph when ZnO was deposited by an electrolyticdeposition method on the graphite substrate where the amorphous carbonlayer is not formed.

FIG. 3( b) shows a surface SEM observation photograph when ZnO wasdeposited by an electrolytic deposition method on the graphite substratewhere the amorphous carbon layer was formed.

FIG. 4 shows a cross-sectional TEM (Transmission Electron Microscope)observation photograph of the ZnO formed on the graphite substrate.

FIG. 5 shows a high-resolution TEM observation photograph in thevicinity of the interface between the graphite substrate and the ZnO.

FIGS. 6( a)-6(c) show microscope photographs showing electrondiffraction images by TEM in the area shown in FIG. 4.

FIG. 7( a) shows a microscope photograph showing an in-plane TEMobservation image of ZnO formed on the graphite substrate provided withthe amorphous carbon layer.

FIG. 7( b) shows a microscope photograph showing an electron diffractionimage by TEM in the range shown in FIG. 7( a).

FIG. 8( a) shows a graph showing the cathode luminescence measurementresult of the ZnO formed on the graphite substrate where the amorphouscarbon layer was not formed by the electrolytic deposition method.

FIG. 8( b) shows a graph showing the cathode luminescence measurementresult of the ZnO formed on the graphite substrate where the amorphouscarbon layer was formed by the electrolytic deposition method.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The embodiment of the present disclosure is described below withreference to the drawings.

Embodiment 1

FIG. 1 shows a cross-sectional view of the substrate according to theembodiment 1.

Reference numeral 1 indicates a graphite substrate. Reference numeral 2indicates an amorphous carbon layer formed by oxidizing the surface ofthe graphite substrate. Reference numeral 3 indicates a ZnOmonocrystalline layer formed on the amorphous carbon layer 2 by anelectrolytic deposition method.

A method for fabricating the substrate is described below with referenceto the drawings.

FIG. 2( a) and FIG. 2( b) show cross-sectional views of the processsequence of the method for fabricating the substrate according to theembodiment 1.

In the embodiment 1, the ZnO monocrystal is grown by the electrolyticdeposition method with the use of an aqueous solution containing zincion.

First, as shown in FIG. 2( a), the surface of the graphite substrate 1is oxidized so that the surface of the graphite substrate 1 is caused tobe amorphous. Thus, the amorphous carbon layer 2 is formed. Next, asshown in FIG. 2( b), the ZnO monocrystal 3 is grown by the electrolyticdeposition method at a low temperature of not more than 100 degreesCelsius on the amorphous carbon layer 2.

In the present embodiment 1, the c-axis oriented monocrystalline ZnOwith excellent crystallinity and with a small amount of defects isformed, although the graphite substrate, which is not a monocrystallinesubstrate, is used.

Example 1

The method for fabricating the ZnO by the electrolytic deposition methodis described below more particularly.

Two substrates were prepared. One of them was a graphite substrate(hereinafter, referred to as “graphite substrate A”) which did not havean amorphous carbon layer on its surface. The other was a graphitesubstrate (hereinafter, referred to as “graphite substrate B”) which hadan amorphous carbon layer on its surface formed by an oxygen-ashingtreatment.

As an electrolyte solution, a zinc nitrate aqueous solution at aconcentration of 0.1 mol/L was prepared. These graphite substrates A andB were immersed in the zinc nitrate aqueous solution as workingelectrodes, while a platinum electrode is immersed as a counterelectrode. A cathode electrolyzation with a potentiogalvanostat wasperformed in a condition where the temperature of the solution was 70degrees Celsius and the current density was −0.3 m□·cm⁻² to grow a ZnOcrystal. Subsequently, the substrate was drawn up and rinsed with purewater, and dried.

FIG. 3( a) shows a surface SEM observation image of the ZnO formed onthe surface of the graphite substrate A by the electrolytic depositionmethod. FIG. 3( b) shows a surface SEM observation image of the ZnOformed on the surface of the graphite substrate B by the electrolyticdeposition method.

As shown in FIG. 3( a), polycrystalline ZnO was formed on the graphitesubstrate A. Furthermore, crystalline particles having the shape of ahexagonal column were not oriented along the predetermined direction andwere not c-axis oriented with regard to the substrate.

On the contrary, as shown in FIG. 3( b), the ZnO was formed on thegraphite substrate B in such a manner that a regular hexagonal crystalface appeared clearly. Presumably, the hexagonal flat crystal face wasderived from the c-face of the ZnO which has a hexagonal wurtzite-typecrystal structure. In general, a crystal having facet of a hexagonalwurtzite-type crystal structure indicates high crystallinity.

FIG. 4 shows a cross-sectional TEM observation image of the ZnOmonocrystal 3 grown by the electrolytic deposition method on thegraphite substrate B having the amorphous carbon layer 2 with athickness of 7 nanometers.

FIG. 5 shows an enlarged image in the range shown in FIG. 4.

As is clear from FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, the ZnO monocrystal was formed onthe graphite substrate 1 having the amorphous carbon layer 2 in such amanner that the ZnO monocrystal was formed perpendicularly to thesubstrate.

From FIG. 3( b), FIG. 4, and FIG. 5, it is considered that the ZnOmonocrystal 3 having the shape of the hexagonal column was formed on thegraphite substrate 1 having the amorphous carbon layer 2 in such amatter that the ZnO monocrystal 3 was c-axis oriented.

As understood from FIG. 5, the dense crystal consisting of ZnO withoutgrain boundaries or cracks has been grown on the amorphous carbon layer2. It was confirmed that the amorphous carbon layer 2 was consisted ofcarbon by an energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopic analysis method(hereinafter, referred to as “EDS”) with use of a TEM and by an electronenergy loss spectroscopy analysis (hereinafter, referred to as “EELS”).A crystal lattice was not observed even when the high resolutionobservation was performed by a high-resolution TEM. Accordingly, it wasbelieved that the carbon in layer 2 was an amorphous carbon which has adifferent structure from a crystalline graphite substrate.

FIG. 6( a) to FIG. 6( c) show electron beam diffraction images in therange shown in FIG. 4 by TEM. From the distance and the angel formed bya diffraction spot in the electron beam diffraction images of FIG. 6( a)to FIG. 6( c), it was confirmed that the crystal was ZnO. All of thediffraction spots in the electron beam diffraction images of FIG. 6( a)to FIG. 6( c) appear clearly, and all the patterns of the diffractionspots have an identical direction. This means that crystal orientationsat the three positions are identical and the entirety of the crystal isa monocrystal. Furthermore, from the direction of the (002) plane in thediffraction spots in the electron beam diffraction images of FIG. 6( a)to FIG. 6( c), it was confirmed that the ZnO was c-axis oriented withregard to the graphite substrate.

FIG. 7( a) shows an in-plane TEM observation image of the ZnO grown onthe graphite substrate B having the amorphous carbon layer 2 with athickness of 7 nanometers by the electrolytic deposition method. FIG. 7(b) shows an electron beam diffraction image in the range shown in FIG.7( a) by TEM. In the electron beam diffraction image measured in a widerange from the plane direction, the diffraction spot appears muchclearly. Thus, it was confirmed that the ZnO was a monocrystal with highquality.

FIG. 8( a) shows a measurement result of cathode luminescence excited byan electron beam, after the ZnO was formed on the graphite substrate Aby the electrolytic deposition method. FIG. 8( b) shows a measurementresult of cathode luminescence excited by an electron beam, after theZnO was formed on the graphite substrate B having the amorphous carbonlayer 2 with a thickness of 7 nanometers by the electrolytic depositionmethod.

In FIG. 8( a), not only the band-edge luminescence from the ZnO at awavelength of 380 nanometers, but also the broad luminescence peak at awavelength of approximately 500 to 800 nanometers derived from thecrystal defects of the ZnO were observed. On the contrary, in FIG. 8(b), the broad luminescence peak at a wavelength of approximately 500 to800 nanometers derived from the crystal defects of the ZnO were verysmall. Further, only the band-edge luminescence from the ZnO at awavelength of 380 nanometers was observed strongly. From FIG. 8, it wasconsidered that the amount of crystal defects of the ZnO was decreasedbecause the amorphous carbon layer 2 was provided on the graphitesubstrate 1.

Table 1 shows the values of full width at half maximum (hereinafter,referred to as “FWHM”) of the (0002) peaks obtained by rocking curves ofXRD of the ZnO when the thickness of the amorphous carbon layer 2 isvaried. The thickness of the amorphous carbon layer can be varied by,for example, adjusting a treatment time in the oxygen-asking.

TABLE 1 Thickness (nm) FWHM (arcsec) 0 19440 3 2520 7 2160 30 2880 503240 80 10080

In a case where the amorphous carbon layer 2 had a thickness of not lessthan 3 nanometers and not less than 50 nanometers, the ZnO were c-axisoriented, and the FWHM values were excellent. In a case where theamorphous carbon layer 2 had a thickness of more than 80 nanometers, thesurface of the graphite substrate was damaged and deteriorated duringthe oxygen-asking so that the growth of the c-axis orientation of theZnO was prevented. Accordingly, it is preferred that the amorphouscarbon layer 2 has a thickness of not less than 3 nanometers and notmore than 50 nanometers.

From these results, the monocrystalline ZnO with significantly highcrystallinity can be formed by providing the amorphous carbon layer 2 onthe surface of the graphite substrate 1 and then growing the ZnO crystalwith use of the electrolytic deposition method. When the ZnO monocrystal3 is grown on the graphite substrate 1, since not a vacuum film-formingmethod but an electrolytic deposition method is used to manufacture theZnO monocrystal, it is possible to obtain a ZnO monocrystal having alarge area at low cost.

The substrate of the present disclosure is useful as a semiconductorsubstrate to form high quality semiconductor such as GaN or ZnO.Furthermore, the substrate of the present disclosure is suitable forfabricating an electric device such as a light-emitting diode element, asolar cell, or a FET for a power device.

While the present disclosure has been described with respect topreferred embodiments thereof, it will be apparent to those skilled inthe art that the disclosed disclosure may be modified in numerous waysand may assume many embodiments other than those specifically describedabove. Accordingly, it is intended by the appended claims to cover allmodifications of the disclosure that fall within the true spirit andscope of the disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A substrate comprising: a graphite substrate: anamorphous carbon layer formed on the graphite substrate; and amonocrystalline ZnO layer formed on the amorphous carbon layer, whereinthe amorphous carbon layer has a thickness of not less than 3 nm and notmore than 50 nm.